Beatrice was distraught.The two little girls approached the woman in the ticket office and told her the sad story The ticket office woman was, by all accounts, charming She made a telephone call and an engineer arrived He ordered the current of Line Six cut off for 20 minutes Trains stopped; passengers spilt out; others joined them. Every other Friday, Beatrice, who is half-Irish and half-Swedish, comes to lunch and to play at our home. But he does not believe in an approach which destroys national identities.”Mr Prodi’s arrival marks a real desire to achieve change. But some colleagues remain sceptical about his ability to centralise power in the way that prime ministers can..

HERE IS a story of a child’s shoe, a piano and the Parisian paradox. The paradox is that Parisians can be the most tolerant people on earth And, at the same time, by common consent, the rudest. A source close to Mr Prodi said: “He believes in a united Europe which is more than a single, commercially united area. He believes in an EU common foreign policy and monetary policy, and in the political role of the Commission. And his decision to make his two vice-presidents responsible for EU reform, rather than giving them the expected portfolios covering economic and foreign policy, has opened the way for Mr Prodi to take ultimate control of these areas.Allies insist that the new President will use his authority to push forward with European integration. They are also due to be deprived of their personal press officers in an attempt to force the Brussels information system to serve the Commission rather than individuals.Mr Prodi has decided to tighten his grip on policy too, in order to give sharper focus to the two areas he wants to develop under his leadership: Balkan reconstruction, and job creation throughout the 15-member bloc – possibly with a new employment pact.

As the “centre” is strengthened, commissioners – who now have their private offices in the Breydel – will be scattered around the city. Friedrich Merz, the CDU’s finance expert, was especially appalled by the government’s “arbitrary intervention in the social welfare system”.After blowing a kiss to the left, Mr Schroder’s logical next step is towards the right.A reshuffle is in the air, one in which Jurgen Trittin, the Greens’ quarrelsome Environment Minister, and Walter Riester, the Labour Minister, are likely to be shown the door.. Breaking a direct electoral pledge, pensions will not rise in line with wages for the next two years. Petrol prices will soar and social expenditure will be pruned back.The opposition Christian Democrats, who had always wanted to pursue these kind of policies but never had enough strength to implement them under Helmut Kohl, reacted glumly. “That would be irresponsible towards our children and Germany’s future.”Mr Eichel, the rising star of the moment, is proposing to shave DM30bn (pounds 10bn) off next year’s budget, while cutting corporate taxes at the same time.

That much was made clear yesterday, when the government presented to parliament the most austere budget in Germany’s post-war history.It was an occasion for role reversals, with the Social Democrats promising to fill corporate coffers, and the Christian Democrats pleading on behalf of the poor.”We can no longer continue to live beyond our means,” exhorted the Finance Minister, Hans Eichel. He was behind the dirty tricks campaign which drove Mr Lafontaine, the darling of the left, into the wilderness.After that triumph, though, the corpulent fixer was a marked man.The left plotted revenge, the parliamentary party openly demanded Mr Hombach’s head. Despite being seen as probably the most competent member of the administration, he was blamed for the chaotic presentation of policies.A scandal over private affairs was also refusing to go away. Strangely mirroring the fate of his British alter ego, Mr Hombach has been dogged by allegations that he did not pay for his rather splendid house entirely out of his own pocket.Mr Hombach’s departure does not signal a return to leftist policies, only weeks after the launch of the joint Blair-Schroder paper. This, at least, is how Mr Schroder has operated in the past; playing factions against each other as he consolidated his own position in the middle.Until recently, Mr Hombach was extremely useful.His was the election strategy which propelled the Social Democrats to power last September. Mr Hombach, Mr Schroder’s powerful guru, is to be recommended for the job of EU co-ordinator for the Balkan Stability Pact.
The scheme is a German idea, and Bonn therefore expects its nominee to be approved by other EU states.In a curt statement, Mr Schroder spoke of his “best man” in glowing terms, saying that he was sacrificed with reluctance for such an important task.Since this same Chancellor is proposing an inexperienced lightweight to the equally substantial job of EU commissioner, this explanation appeared far from complete.Rather, Mr Hombach’s removal seemed to be an attempt to mend fences with the left wing of the Social Democrat party, just as the government is pushing through right-wing economic policies. GERHARD SCHRoDER’S meandering course through the German political landscape took an astonishing turn yesterday when the Chancellor eased Bodo Hombach, the Teutonic answer to Peter Mandelson, out of government.